Third time still hasn’t really been the charm for the Asus PadFone hybrid, which continues to be viewed as a tech oddity rather than an innovation. And yet that doesn’t appear to stop the evolution of the family.

A PadFone Infinity follow-up seems to not only be in the works, but extremely close to completion. After being spotted in an unofficial AnTuTu benchmark about a week ago under the A86 codename, the thing has been given the green light by Taiwan’s NCC.

This time around, the device carries the model number T004, though I’m pretty certain both this certification and the recently emerged benchmark have the same exact product in the center of attention.

The only PadFone Infinity 2 specs we can say we know for sure are GSM, W-CDMA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and LTE support. At the same time though, a Full HD screen, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor seem nearly set in stone.

Just like its predecessor, the soon to be unveiled gadget should primarily act as a smartphone, but also be able to double as a tablet courtesy of a “PadFone Station” sporting a higher-res panel and more comfy battery.

It remains to be seen if Asus plans to make the fourth-gen PadFone a 3-in-1 device, also rocking an optional keyboard dock, though that seems unlikely at this point. Still, the biggest hurdle in the phone-cum-tab’s road to world fame will probably be extravagant pricing. Well, that and limited availability.

As far as exactly when we should expect the new PadFone to become official, September’s IFA looks like the best guess. If that’s the case, the thing will probably go on sale as soon as October, which will be a mere six months after PadFone Infinity’s commercial launch. Too soon? You tell us.